The 2025 Oscars could end up hosting a record-breaking win with an 8-minute performance considered the frontrunner for one of the major gongs.
Historically, actors haven’t had to appear on screen for huge chunks of a film to be in with a shot at landing a best supporting actor or actress nomination – or even win.
One of the most popular of these was, of course, Dame Judi Dench’s lively turn as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, which saw her crowned 2000’s best supporting actress at the Academy Awards after appearing in the movie for just five minutes and 52 seconds.
And that’s not even the shortest on record – that honour belongs to Beatrice Straight, who won with a five-minute, two-second turn in 1976’s Network.
However, for next year it is the daughter of a screen legend, and an acclaimed and established star in her own right, who might finally get her first Oscar recognition.
Isabella Rossellini, 72, appears as Sister Agnes in the two-hour religious thriller Conclave, based on best-selling author Robert Harris’s novel and starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci.
In seven minutes and 51 seconds of screen time, as per Variety, her nun is a quiet player during the ancient process of selecting the next Pope, which is led by Fiennes’ Cardinal Lawrence.
However, the traditional voting system soon uncovers intrigue and conspiracy on a level that threatens the future of the Catholic Church and what it stands for.
With Conclave also proving a strong contender in other categories – including best picture and leading actor for the best chance Fiennes has had at an Oscar in years thanks to his quiet but nuanced work – it could also give Rossellini, who is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman, her first Academy Award.
For despite breaking through with White Nights and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet in the 1980s, as well as turns in Wild At Heart and Death Becomes Herin the following decade, and La chimera and Spaceman most recently, she is yet to be nominated.
She has been recognised for her TV work though, including a Golden Globe nomination for Crime of the Century and an Emmy nod for Chicago Hope in the 1990s – just after her iconic cameo on Friends.
If Rossellini does triumph in March next year too, her victory would also go down in the history books, for it would mark the first time a mother and daughter have both won acting Oscars.
Casablanca star Bergman won in the best supporting category for Murder on the Orient Express in 1975, after winning best actress for both Gaslight in 1945 and Anastasia in 1957.
She is also tied in second place for the most numbers of Oscars won for acting ever with three, alongside Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Walter Brennan, Meryl Streep and Frances McDormand.
Katharine Hepburn remains the record-holder with four best actress wins at the Academy Awards to her name.
A win for Rossellini would also make it the third-shortest performance to do so after Straight and Dame Judi, although several other performances shorter than hers have been previously nominated.
According to Screen Time Central, which tracks the length of Oscar-nominated performances, these include a stunningly short two-minute, 19-second appearance from Hermione Baddeley in Room at the Top in 1959 and Ethel Barrymore, who cropped up in 1947’s The Paradine Case for all of three minutes and 52 seconds.
Meanwhile Jane Alexander had a five-minute, nine-second turn in All the President’s Men (1976) and Geraldine Page clocked in six minutes and six seconds in The Pope of Greenwich Village in 1984.
In the best supporting actor category, the shortest ever appearance to win in terms of screen time was Ben Johnson for The Last Picture Show in 1972 with nine minutes and 54 seconds in the movie.
Conclave releases in UK cinemas on Friday, November 29.
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